When Scotland is hit by the recession, the Highland people start devising ways to lure tourists to their sleepy town. Police Constable Hamish MacBeth visits the quaint village of Braikie, which doesn't have much to offer, other than a place of rare beauty debbed "The Fairy Glen." Brochures are printed with a beautiful photographs of a kingfisher rising from a pond, and it isn't long before coach tours begin to arrive. Yet justs as the town's fortune takes flight, a kingfisher is found dangling from a branch in the woods with a noose around its neck. Now a wave of vandalism threatens to ruin Braikie forever and the town turns to Hamish Macbeth. But after violence strikes again, the lanky lawman's investigation quickly turns from a case of animal cruelty to murder...